True Confessions

First off, I was looking at old posts, and realized that I've not posted ANY pictures of MS3 since Clue 1! I am sorry - and herewith rectify the situation: instead of a grey blob, which is what I look at every day, I slipped it onto some 14" needles, so I could spread it out; pinned it, after a fashion; and took some lousy pictures. This first one shows the full length of the fabric, though the farther end is hiding in the shadows. You can at least see there is one. The white dots are the pearls.

This second picture is a closer view of the middle, between the two chevrons:

And lastly, the topmost section, the cats' paws/hexagons/daisies, as various knitters of the stole have called them

Now, about those confessions:

Some background.... Firstly, I am a contrarian. It's not something I'm particularly either proud or ashamed of, it just *is*, rather like having green eyes. If 99% of the world likes A, I'm sure to prefer B. Secondly, I am an American/English/"throw" knitter.

So, the knitters of the no-longer-mystery stole are virtually unanimous in hating/being bored to tears with, the 2.5 charts worth of the cats' paws. (what you see in the picture is approximately 1/4 of the total length of them, as the chart is written, before lengthening the stole, about which I am still undecided) I, on the other hand, am enjoying them immensely! There's just enough to them to keep me mentally alert, without requiring the rigid attention to detail that the more complex areas of the design have required. I can knit AND watch football/golf/tennis, without slighting either.

Judging by the various discussion groups and assorted blogs, most knitters seem to hate purling, and find it more difficult than knitting. Not me! The working needle just rocks back and forth when purling, spitting out new stitches like clockwork, instead of having to interrupt the smooth motion in order to stick the needle into the stitch from the left side required in knitting. On the other hand, the reason I am a "throw" knitter rather than a European/Continental/"scoop" knitter is that I cannot, for the life of me, overcome the awkwardness of the purl stitch! I know people do it, but I'm not one of them, alas.

I have abandoned, to all intents and purposes, the cable-patterned Grape Heather socks, at least for the time being. I need to frog them back to the toe, because it occurred to me that given the way my feet swell, the last thing I need is bulky patterning on my instep! I will eventually finish them, using the cable pattern only on the leg.

Instead, I have been swatching some FlockSock yarn in the "orange sherbet" colorway, which looks good enough to eat! This yarn is a lot more fun to knit than the super-sock of the Grape Heather, and it's a lot prettier, as well. It's not much heavier to the eye than the Zephyr, but it's glossy and firmly spun. I should have taken some pictures of the swatching, but, as usual, I forgot. I'm just not used to the insatiable appetite of the blog for visuals! I'll get there, someday.